Tuesday February 27, 2024
Las Vegas Sun —
Lake Mead’s water elevation climbed back to 2021 levels this month thanks to winter precipitation and resulting snow melt, but experts stress the challenges of managing the region’s water supply remain because of the hotter, drier climate that’s been persistent in the ongoing drought in the Western United States.
The lake’s surface reached 1,075 feet above sea level last week, according to the website lakelevels.info, to return to levels not seen since May 2021, when they measured at 1,073 feet.
Water cuts and the unusually heavy snowfall last winter helped the lake rally, said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for Southern Nevada Water Authority. But, he stresses, the higher water levels aren’t projected to last.
“We could see about a 20-foot swing in elevations this summer,” he said.
Some 40 million people from Denver to Mexico, including many farmers, depend on the 1,450-mile-long Colorado River for water. The river feeds into Lake Mead, where the retreating water levels are obvious with a bathtub ring showing where the water previously reached.